Chrome’s popularity on Android grows, iOS users show it no love

Google has such a huge presence on the web that it was only logical for it to make its own browser – and Chrome was born. Recently, Chrome has been expanding its reach to mobile territory but growth has been slowed by its requirements – unlike the stock Android browser, Chrome runs only on Android 4.0 and above (and 2.3 Gingerbread still holds over half the market).

According to Net Marketshare‘s numbers, Chrome is the browser of choice on 4.03% of Android devices. Those Nexus devices that come with Chrome only probably helped push the numbers up.

Chrome is available on iOS too though it’s a cut down version that uses Apple’s HTML and JavaScript engine and not its own. Which would explain why it barely made a made mark, having a 0.01% usage share in November. When all platforms are taken into account (both phones and tablets), mobile Chrome has 1.14% market share.

That’s not much but it’s more than BlackBerry’s browser managed (1.09%) and Opera Mini has been on a relatively steady decline (it currently sits at 7.02%), so it’s only a matter of time before it and Chrome meet. Internet Explorer is somewhere in the “Other” group in Net Marketshare‘s numbers.

The stock browsers of the two big platforms – iOS and Android – naturally see the most use. Mobile Safari is the undisputed leader with 61.5% (it started the year at 54.85% and peaked in August at 66.43%) with the Android Browser a distant second at 26.09% (it was 17.78% in January and has been growing ever since).